Boston Flora

Tag: Matthew Pottage

  • Tuesday, October 27, 2:30 pm Eastern – The Royal Parks: Gardening for People and Planet, Online

    London Parks & Gardens is delighted to announce that tickets are now on sale for its 2026/27 Winter Lecture Series. Running for over 20 years from October to February, the series is one of the most exciting fixtures in the calendar.

    The first lecture takes place on Tuesday, October 27, with Matthew Pottage, Head of Horticulture at The Royal Parks and late of RHS Wisley, speaking on The Royal Parks: Gardening for People and Planet. The changing climate isn’t kind to gardeners. As soon as you’ve mastered one weather extreme, along comes another. So how will we keep our parks, horticultural areas and green spaces flourishing in this changing world? And how do we do our part by doing it sustainably?

    £5 – £10. Register on Eventbrite UK HERE

  • Tuesday, December 2, 2:00 pm Eastern – Can Nature Friendly Gardens Be Beautiful? Online

    Celebrating the launch of the National Trust’s Book of Nature Friendly Gardening, the Garden Museum is hosting a conversation on December 2 between five professional gardeners who have all been on their own journeys to adapt the way they garden in light of the twin climate and biodiversity crises.

    Our expert panel are: Matthew Pottage, Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy at The Royal Parks; Kate Bradbury, a garden writer and broadcaster who specializes in wildlife gardening; Sean Harkin, Head Gardener at the Inner Temple Gardens in London where he has been evolving the historic Garden to combine biodiversity and beauty; Rebecca Bevan, the National Trust’s Specialist for Environmental Horticulture.

    Their conversation will be chaired by Sheila Das, Head of Gardens at the National Trust, bringing insights of her own from her deep love of food growing and nurturing soil health. £10 Livestream. Book HERE.

  • Wednesday, July 2, 12:00 noon Eastern – Green Spaces, from Wisley to Regent’s Park

    For almost 20 years, The Primrose Hill Lecture Series has been exploring, and debating, some of the most important issues we face as a modern society. It is now recognized as one of London’s leading spaces for bold, lively and informative talks. It is a non-profit organization run by volunteers: the money we raise goes towards valuable community work – including vital local services for the homeless, vulnerable young people and the elderly – and the upkeep of the building that hosts them. On Wednesday, July 2, enjoy a live virtual event with Matthew Pottage in conversation with Catherine Horwood on Green Spaces from Wisley to Regents Park. A virtual ticket is £10 and may be purchased through Eventbrite HERE. Ticket holders may watch after the event on YouTube after the event concludes, as well.

    Matthew Pottage is the youngest-ever curator of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley gardens. He has recently been appointed the first ever Head of Horticultural and Landscape Strategy for the Royal Parks where he will manage restoration projects across Richmond Park and Bushy Park, and create a new garden in Regent’s Park. An author and regular panelist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, he started at RHS Wisley as a trainee, progressing from Garden Manager to Curator in just 12 years. He has overseen the creation of the Exotic Garden, the Wisteria Walk, the Heather Landscape and the Clear Lake. He also has plenty of advice for patio gardeners.

    Catherine Horwood is an author and historian specializing in horticultural and social history. Her books include Beth Chatto – A Life with Plants, Rose and Potted History – How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes. A long-term resident of Primrose Hill, she is a passionate gardener and has opened her gardens for the National Gardens Scheme. She is a trustee of the Camden Highline and is currently working on a biography of garden designer and author Penelope Hobhouse.

  • Friday – Saturday, September 23 & 24 – Horticultural Bright Lights: The Future of Gardening

    The JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University’s 40th Anniversary Symposium will take a look forward to what the next 40 years have in store for the gardening world. From landscapes that are in harmony with the natural world and cultivating edibles native to our own woodlands to breeding and collecting plants suited to 21st century landscapes, we’ll hear from some of the brightest lights of the next generation of horticultural heavyweights including Matthew Pottage the youngest ever curator for the Royal Horticulture Society’s crown jewel garden— Wisley, one of the premiere display gardens not only in England but anywhere in the world.

    Other speakers include cutting edge plant breeder, Hans Hansen; ecological designer, Rebecca McMackin; taxonomist/explorer, Aaron Floden; landscape designer, Claudia West; assistant professor, Jared Barnes, Ph.D.; and North Carolina’s own maple nuts, Matt and Tim Nichols.

    One presentation is entitled Propagating Horticulturists: A Cultural Guide for Cultivating the Future of Horticulture.
    Propagation is a cornerstone of horticulture. We are incredible propagators of plants, but a challenge we face is how do we propagate horticulturists? In this timely and lively talk, Jared Barnes, current horticulture professor at Stephen F. Austin State University, will discuss the similarities in how we sow seeds and how we expose youth to horticulture, in how we take cuttings and how we help amateur gardeners continue to take root, and in how we graft two different species together and how we bridge a connection between plants and other hobbies and interests. This NC State alumnus will also show in this talk that by using this language and mind-frame along with our understanding of the art, science, and craft of propagation, we can connect with more people and develop a cultural guide for propagating horticulturists.

    Exploration, Discovery, and Bridging Botany and Horticulture is the topic of Aaron Floden, Ph.D. Explorations in eastern North America and the less-explored parts of Asia reveal novelties in the scientific realm from both regions with a strong focus on plants with horticultural interest. A strong focus will be Polygonatum and related genera, some North American natives, and numerous genera from Asia where we’ll visit the least explored part of the Himalaya in Arunachal Pradesh, India, the Dabashan in central China, and the north of Vietnam on the border with China.

    International Maples of Mystery is next. Japanese maples selections are made all over the world. Matt and Tim Nichols will discuss unique Japanese maple selections made from all over the world with a focus on their most recent plant excursion to Japan which included wild collecting maples, visits of Tsukasa Maple, Kobayashi Nursery, Kobayashi Momiji En, World Maple Park, and much more.

    Wisley — The New Chapter for the Flagship Garden of the Royal Horticultural Society is presented by Matthew Pottage. Wisley has been gardened for over 100 years and boasts the largest collection of cultivated plants in the United Kingdom. Attracting over one million visitors per year, Wisley is at the dawn of a new chapter with over £60 million pounds worth of investment planned over the next ten years, coupled with the appointment of Matthew Pottage, the youngest curator in the Society’s history.

    Planting in a Post-wild World will explore how we live in a global city and few wild places remain in today’s world. Planting designers have the opportunity and responsibility to bring wildness and ecological value back into our landscape. This challenge requires a new form of planting design that works with natural principles and marries horticulture with ecology. Join Claudia West as we explore how native plants will fit into our future landscape and how plant community based design strategies can help you meet aesthetic and ecological goals during your next planting project.

    Hans Hansen will speak on New Plant Development at Walters Gardens. Hans Hansen is the director of new plant development and plant breeding at Walters Gardens in Zeeland, Michigan (pictured below) – a position he ‘s had for seven years. Before Walters Gardens, Hans was the director of research and development at Shady Oaks Nursery in Waseca, Minnesota, for over 15 years. Hans ‘s current breeding projects include refining U.S. natives for more ornamental and useful urban garden use. His most extensive projects include Baptisia, Monarda, Phlox, ×Mangaves, Heuchera, and Hibiscus breeding programs.

    Also on the program will be Rebecca McMackin, Director of Horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park, along with an auction and book sale. Call Chris Glenn at 919-513-7005 to register, and visit www.jcra.ncsu.edu. Program registration is $180, which does not include transportation or hotel. The event will be held in the Ruby C. McSwain Educatin Center, 4415 Beryl Road, Raleigh, North Carolina.